Princess channelled her spells. A series of connecting formations emerged and spun around her, emitting waves of destruction.

The Vessel dodged the approaching chains while commanding the overgrown scenery to attack Princess. It swayed and radiated a deadly scent that combusted the golden Arachna inside out. The thorny vines stretched skyward. Its rapid movement interrupted the chain.

Princess shifted her position, dancing on the chain she held to dodge the strikes. Her movement ruptured her abdominal wound, though she could only endure the pain.

"Do you think you can leave this easily?" the Vessel said.

"Merely a Vessel, you don't have the qualification to boast in front of me."

"A mortal dare to offend the Gods?"

"The arrogance fall while the humble survive. As the Goddess of Nature, it's surprising that you forgot your philosophy."

"You shall regret your words."

The Vessel clapped her hands and created an enormous spectre who towered over the hall with her impressive silhouette. She stared at Princess with her majestic green eyes.

Fons exploded from the Vessel. Her body gradually shrivelled as exhaustion claimed her mind. Despite having no trace of Divinity, the Goddess of Nature's silhouette remained all-encompassing. She pointed at Princess and created a storm of Fons.

The Vessel rigidly mimicked the posture and burnt her life away. Her smooth, refined appearance regressed into the ordinary look before rapidly ageing. Though she was dying, her eyes remained in awe of the Goddess of Nature.

The chains coiled around Princess and formed an isolation sphere. She watched them blocking her sight. In the darkness, she perceived nothing. She was alone inside the volumeless, timeless space. Gradually she curled into herself and closed her eyes.

Like the first moment of her rebirth, Princess felt comfortable, floating in the void between life and death. If Shifting Mist failed to protect her, she would die, and everything would end.

"Your highness, it's our honour to serve you."

The Second Princess opened her eyes and gazed at the window of the control room. The sky was blood-red as an ever-expanding swarm of Arachna circled her fleet, fighting against the aircraft. Against the overwhelming force, she had zero chance of victory.

"It's been the best run." The Second Princess tore a badge of honour from her uniform and tossed it to her team of generals and officers. "For your sacrifice, I gift you all my most praised badge of honour."

They caught the badge and threw it back. "Your highness, you should keep it. You won't be dying here. Not now, not when you haven't fulfilled your promise."

"I give it because I must survive." She placed the badge on the desk. "I'm sorry."

"We're old and tired men who need some rest. Your highness, however, is brimming with the energy necessary to pursue your dream."

As the room trembled, the officers scrambled to their position. The soldiers armed themselves with guns and commanded the androids to secure the area. Everything turned red as the emergency light blended in with blood and gores from the battle.

With a group of generals around her, the Second Princess raced to the emergency escape pod. Along the way, she encountered many exotic Arachna and lost many great men.

In front of their deaths, she could only shake her head. The silent respect she momentarily gave them was enough for them to pass on with a smile on their faces.

Reaching the bay, they cleared the area for her before grouping to send her into the pod alone. They would send all the pods with some destinated to explode and distract the Arachna.

"Your highness, we bid you farewell." They took off their hats and performed one last salute for her. "If there is a next life, we will serve under you again."

"If there is the second chance, I hope you all live your lives as merchants instead."

"Better to die for you than to slave for them." They laughed, though their voices turned hoarse.

The Second Princess watched the door of her pod closed. "If there is a second chance, I'll make sure everything ends with me."

The pod closed, sealing the deaths of the loyal generals. The Second Princess stared at their figures, their mouth moving to form a slogan with which she was too familiar.

"Humanity shall prevail, against the force of destruction, against the betrayals, and against despair." Their voice didn't reach her, but their message resonated inside her heart.

As the final gesture, she nodded to them before closing the window with a protective black film. Without any way to identify the interior of the pods, the Arachna had no idea which one was the real escape pod.

The Second Princess turned off all power and took off her outer uniform. She placed every badge she had in front of her and closed her eyes, counting the second.

Something collided with the isolation sphere and threw Princess from her curling position. She opened her eyes. A ray of light penetrated the darkness and greeted her. Through the rift, an enormous hand reached for her, its fingers holding the chain in place.

"Peritia, it's my win," the silhouette said and faded away. Her clear voice lingered inside the hall.

Princess gazed at the horizon. The sky shifted its hue from the gloomy greyness into a blue shade. Two gigantic beings emerged into her line of sight and headed toward Shifting Mist.

After Princess entered Shifting Mist, she told Consimia and Ancil to evacuate to a safer zone before rushing to the core room, her expression solemn, her footstep heavy.

"The next battle will be tough." Princess sat on the throne. Despite her exhaustion, she forced herself to stay awake.

"Your highness, please be prepared."

"Are you ready to be a part of history? Battling against two Divine Avatars and winning . . ."

Compared to the spectre, the Divine Avatars dwarfed the hall into insignificant. The Goddess of Nature looked slow, but her movement cut through space with precision and power incomparable to what Princess had witnessed.

"Don't you think they're too big?" Princess said.

"The Gods command reality as they see fit. To them, their physical appearance matters not."

"When you become too big, you'll lose sight of what is around you."

The Goddess of Nature swiped her hand, filling the sky with illusionary life. The faint chirping of the birds and the sound of waterfall manifested. The darkness of a thunderstorm became a gentle rain as every droplet brought with it dense Fons that assimilated all technology into nature.

Once they landed, the wreckages decayed and sunk beneath the clouds. Weeds and flowers filled their surface. The golden Arachna shrivelled into corpses with mushrooms and moulds permeating their carapaces.

The Goddess of Winter blew a puff of chilling air. Her blizzard instantly covered the surrounding. The temperature dropped close to absolute zero, freezing the Fons in the air and converted it into storms, exponentially increasing in their intensity.

As one of the few structures to withstand the might of the Divinity, Shifting Mist generated the milky fog to cover its vicinity. Inside the protective region, all foreign Fons dispersed and powered the fog, repeating the cycle as it expanded.

Princess forced herself to stare at the approaching blizzard and the soothing downpour. She observed the enormous flow of Fons and mimicked its structure, trying to gain insight into the realm of Divinity.

The pain in her chest intensified, the gem heating up. Princess kept staring at the Fons, her eyes tearing up as if she was gawking at the sun. The knowledge she received from the unknown Arbiter began to fuse with her experience. They became the foundation for the insight to emerge.

As her vision grew blurry, Princess closed her eyes and motioned her hands, unaffected by the shaking and rocking of Shifting Mist. Despite the great danger that could obliterate her in an instant, her mind remained calm.

The searing headache assaulted her, but she stood firm in her path. She imitated the flow in a smaller scale, yet her delicate design was already on the blink of collapse.

"An Arbiter dictates the world's fate. They commanded the fundamental structure of the world, Fons.

"By playing with it, they imitate Gods and peek into the realm of Divinity. They silently pursue the truth while defying the world.

"When their domains are in danger, the Gods enforce the rules to the mortals and lay the foundation for the Treaties around the world, designed to restrict all forbidden research. Their actions, however, prompt the Arbiter's curiosity."

The design Princess created expanded from a tiny formation into a region of magical symbols and imagery. She carved endlessly elaborate detail into the air, bending space around her.

The formation rotated like a planet and brought changes to its composition. Like a cycle of night and day, the symbols shone and dimmed. They moved and interacted. Despite created from pure Fons, they seemingly gained lives and emotions.

"The limit placed by Gods is arbitrary. Fueled by the desire for self-improvement, the Arbiter conducts experiments to go beyond mortality. They study the absolute laws of nature and found Gods to be . . . flawed.

"Compared to the cold and uncaring world, the Gods are full of emotions. They are too human-like. They are not the force of nature."

Princess opened her eyes and grabbed the gem in her chest. She revealed a wicked smile as she crushed it into pieces. The pain burnt through her as if she had crushed her heart and torn her veins open.

Like blood spraying from her heart, Fons flooded from the broken gem. A sense of suffocation filled Princess. She kept gasping for breath while forcing the Fons to compress in front of her.

"We ask the question: from where do the Gods come? Only silence returns to us. There is nothing beyond, or they simply don't care.

"In the world of senselessness, we get to decide the meaning. To exist above the system and control it, to derive the laws and force others to obey—the Authority is the power akin to Gods, or even surpass them."

As the formation imploded and refused to collapse any further, Princess held it in her hand and crushed it with her strength. The Fons razed her carapace and melted her fresh, but she persisted with her determination.

"To transcend mortality is to reject the laws of cause and effect. Either the world forces me, or I force the world!"

Princess slammed the ball of impossibly concentrated Fons at her chest where the gem used to be. It inserted into the bloody hole and began to melt her bones and made its way to her heart.

The excess Fons rushed into her veins, dissolving her blood and cells. The misery gradually disintegrated Princess into particles of pure Fons. She uncontrollably trembled as her mind struggled to control the Fons.

The symbols inside the formation exploded into a swarm of petals and a blizzard. They took over Princess's body and divided her into two half, one slowly freezing, the other slowly decomposing.

In the unending clash between them, the overflowing Fons inside Princess gradually calmed down. Through the refinement by two distinctive imitations of Divinity, a hint of something unique emerged from the chaos.

Princess opened her eyes, a hint of golden hue permeating her gaze.